Hello All. I'm new to this site. I've been shooting bullseye matches for about 10 yrs.I just happened upon this site just a few weeks ago and decided to sign up. My question is what do you eat before a match? Does coffee drinking affect how one shoots ? I'm trying to get my scores up and been dry firing about an hr a day.

I like to eat a high protein breakfast !ike ham and eggs. I stay away from high carb stuff like pancakes or biscuits. If you normally drink coffee, drink it the day of the match, too. You don't want to shoot with caffeine withdrawal. Keep up the dry firing.

Up until this past month, I always did my routine breakfast before matches like any other day. Eggs, homefries, rye toast and small coffee.

Recently my son who is struggling with Lyme for three years, went to a new doctor. The doctor put him on a fruit, veggie, fish, turkey & chicken type diet. Whole foods and organic. NO processed anything, soda, beer, coffee, wheat, gluten, beef, pork, diary, chesse etc...

I weaned myself off coffee and started to drink water and herbal tea.

I have seen my shooting get a little better since I dieted along with my son during this time.

In "The Pistol Shooters Treasury" Blankenship says that he gave up tobacco, caffeine and alcohol. It helped his hold. When I was younger, I followed his advice. It helped tremendously. Most shooters like a light meal with high protein before shooting. I remember hearing that Zins eats a turkey sandwich.

BE Mike wrote:In "The Pistol Shooters Treasury" Blankenship says that he gave up tobacco, caffeine and alcohol. It helped his hold. When I was younger, I followed his advice. It helped tremendously. Most shooters like a light meal with high protein before shooting. I remember hearing that Zins eats a turkey sandwich.

When I was young I used to smoke drink & swear for nor reasonn......then I picked up a gun.

A hour before the match its a egg mcmuufin, and a caffeine free drink , after 22 a banana, light lunch before 45 match, but better scores are had if I just have another banana and a protein bar, water.

sigman45 wrote:Hello All. I'm new to this site. I've been shooting bullseye matches for about 10 yrs.I just happened upon this site just a few weeks ago and decided to sign up. My question is what do you eat before a match? Does coffee drinking affect how one shoots ? I'm trying to get my scores up and been dry firing about an hr a day.

Hello again all.

HI Sig, I usually eat a hot breakfast burrito, 2-3 doughnuts, and 2-3 cups of coffee.

The doughnuts and the last two cups of coffee are consumed during the match.

+1 on the egg mcmuffin. -1 on the caffeine free drink. Coffee drinkers need their coffee. I bring a thermos full to every match. I also think it is important to keep your blood sugar level. I bring sliced up "Old Wisconsin" summer sausage and sliced Tillamook cheddar. I nibble all day long. Hmmm that might also explain my BMI.

BE Mike wrote:In "The Pistol Shooters Treasury" Blankenship says that he gave up tobacco, caffeine and alcohol. It helped his hold. When I was younger, I followed his advice. It helped tremendously. Most shooters like a light meal with high protein before shooting. I remember hearing that Zins eats a turkey sandwich.

When I was young I used to smoke drink & swear for nor reasonn......then I picked up a gun.

I hear ya. I knew a fellow who shot bullseye and played golf. He must have doubled up on the swearing, drinking and smoking.

The answer I got 40 years ago would still be the correct answer today. If you are a coffee drinker then drink coffee. If you are a smoker then smoke....But never do both. If you do a stimulant (coffee) and a depressant (tobacco) at the same time you will be twitchy. Twitchy and shooting don't mix.

I have learned to eat less sugar and more protein before a match. I do make sure I have eaten something so I don't get light headed. I do drink coffee every day, but now when I am going to shoot in the morning, I drink Mountain Dew, which has 40% of the caffeine of coffee. Enough to wake me up but not enough to give me the hand shakes.

Totally eliminating caffeine tends to do me no good, and timing is everything. I like a good meaty sandwich for lunch if it's an afternoon/evening shoot. I have a normal cup of tea in the morning (black, sugar and milk), and then water for the rest of the day. I don't normally consume any high-caffeine drinks in the afternoon anyway. For morning matches, the tea doesn't seem to hurt.

For tobacco, I haven't been able to kick it, but abstaining from that habit for 2 1/2-3 hours prior to shooting gives me good results. There's definitely a noticeable increase in shake immediately after smoking. Drinking plenty of water prior to the match, and fifteen or twenty minutes of breath exercises and meditation seems to both reduce the damage to my shooting, and counteract the symptoms of abstaining.

I may be particularly susceptible as far as caffeine goes. I generally only have a max of 75mg a day and that is all in the morning. I know that sugar before a match has me shaking in about an hour even without caffeine.

What I should have done was see what happens when I drink the caffeine but eat a turkey sandwich at the same time.

Avoid a heavy meal at all costs because within 1 hour the food will start to move past the stomach into the lower gut. It moves by peristaltic motion. That is the food is squeezed down the intestines by muscles that surround the intestine. This movement of food in the abdominal area makes it very hard to hold the sights still. I shoot my best with little or no food in my stomach.